Arrest backs Trump's claim anti-Semitism from left

It turns out that the first suspect arrested in the investigation of the recent wave of threats to Jewish Community Centers, schools and cemeteries fits the profile predicted by President Trump, not the one presumed by groups blaming his campaign and presidency for an alleged rise in “hate crimes.”

Authorities believe the man arrested Friday by the FBI in St. Louis, Juan Thompson – a black, anti-Trump, former reporter for left-wing journalist Glenn Greenwald’s publication the Intercept – was responsible for eight of the nearly 100 bomb threats and attacks since Jan. 4.

Groups such at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anne Frank Center and the Anti-Defamation League have criticized Trump for not condemning the wave of threats more strongly.

In its complaint, the FBI says Thompson, who attacked Trump via Twitter only days before the arrest Friday, made the threats against the Jewish centers in an attempt to frame an ex-girlfriend. He’s been charged with cyberstalking, which could put him in prison for five years.

Thompson this week actually tweeted his disgust for the Jewish Community Center threats then took aim at Trump.

“[Trump] is not insane. That’s a slur against ppl who actually suffer w/mental health issues. He is simply a racist/sexist/capitalist monster,” Thompson tweeted.

In 2016, Thompson announced he was running for mayor of St. Louis to “fight back against Trumpian fascism.” In tweets, he also called white people “trash” and said they “have no shame.” He described himself as a “socialist” and tweeted “we don’t want America like NY, we want it like Havana.”

He also tweeted that Trump’s recent declaration that “Chicago needs help” to address its murder problem is Trump’s “and the white establishment’s effort to remove black ppl from the southside of Chicago.”

On Tuesday, Trump campaign fundraiser Anthony Scaramucci suggested Democrats were responsible for the threats against the Jewish community.

“Obviously there is problem with anti-Semitism and we have to take it seriously,” Oren, now a member of the Israeli Knesset, told the Times of Israel. “But there is anti-Semitism on the left, and nobody blamed Obama for that.

“During my time in Washington, I never encountered right-wing anti-Semitism, but I experienced a lot of anti-Semitism, mainly on campuses,” he said.

“Ask Jewish students in America if they fear anti-Semitism. They do – not from the right, but from the left.”

“After weeks of our organization’s having to plead, cajole and criticize this president to speak out against anti-Semitism, we give him credit for doing the right thing tonight by beginning his speech to address anti-Semitism and other hate. But his suddenly dulcet tones weren’t matched by substantive kindness,” executive director Steven Goldstein said in a statement.

“The president didn’t say exactly what he would do to fight anti-Semitism – how he could have stayed so vague? We’ve endured weeks of anti-Semitic attacks across America and we didn’t hear a single proposal from the president tonight to stop them.”

Further, SPLC’s definition of “haters” and “extremists” has been at variance with the mainstream. The organization, for example, labeled Carson, now President Trump’s HUD secretary, an “extremist.” After a nationwide backlash last year, the organization apologized and removed the post. But the SPLC website still has a negative “file” on Carson that insists he has said things that “most people would conclude are extreme,” such as his belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.

“These actions are heinous and should be fully investigated and prosecuted. We have no information about the charges against Thompson other than what is included in the criminal complaint.”

Thompson, who worked for the Intercept from November 2014 to January 2016, was fired after staffers discovered he had fabricated sources and quotes in his articles.

Glenn Greenwald is one of three co-founding editors of the Intercept and the author of “No Place to Hide,” about the U.S. surveillance state and his experiences reporting on the classified documents obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Betsy Reed, the Intercept’s editor-in-chief, wrote in a note to readers in February 2016 that Thompson “fabricated several quotes in his stories and created fake email accounts that he used to impersonate people, one of which was a Gmail account in my name.”

Reed said she and her colleagues found three instances in which Thompson made up quotes and attributed them to people who hadn’t been interviewed.

“Thompson went to great lengths to deceive his editors,” Reed wrote, “creating an email account to impersonate a source and lying about his reporting methods.”

One incident happened in Thompson’s reporting of Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof. Thompson, the Intercept said, claimed he had spoken to a cousin of Roof, named Scott Roof.

Thompson wrote that Scott Roof speculated his cousin may have attacked the black church because he “kind of went over the edge when a girl he liked started dating a black guy two years back.”